In these pages you'll:

Appreciate the historical and intellectual events that shaped theology in the 20th century

Be encouraged to faithfully discern the trajectory of movements in the church

About the Book

Once a strong, vital, and growing denomination, the United Methodist Church is now barely recognizable after more than four decades of demoralization and membership decline. What has gone wrong?

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the American church saw the rise of “theological liberalism,” a religious system that intended to respond to new scientific and intellectual currents that were sweeping across the culture. Instead, liberalism not only challenged, but often displaced the substance of the church’s doctrine and teaching, accommodating it to the new intellectual milieu of secularism and rationalism.

In The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism, James Heidinger discusses the rise of liberalism in America, its anti-supernatural focuses, and the resulting transition in Wesleyan theology. While there are undoubtedly many dimensions to the decline of a denomination, Heidinger suggests we look no further than theological liberalism as the driving force behind the fall of the once-mighty United Methodist Church.

About the Author

James Heidinger II is a retired clergy member of the East Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He and his wife, Joanne, are members of the First United Methodist Church of Lexington, where Dr. Heidinger has taught an adult Sunday School class for many years. He has been involved in several renewal movements and organizations related to the Methodist and Mainline church.